nine months

Sienna turned N I N E !!! months last week. It blows my mind to think that means she's been part of our life for a year and a half since she also spent nine months growing inside! Sometimes I can't believe how fast this is all going by. In three more months my tiny baby will be a year old. It sometimes seems like yesterday I brought a tiny 7 pound newborn through our doors, and now we have a spirited, funny, cute baby who is curious and wonderful.

Let's see... the months are started to blur together but here are our new discoveries:

• Crawling for real (as opposed to the army crawl or dragging)
• Pulling up to standing in her crib and on the couch.
• Laughs to get us to laugh at her.
• Eating real people food with mama and dada!
• Babbling constantly
• Crawling after us when we leave the room to find us.
• Deciding when you want something and screaming at us for it (h i l a r i o u s)
• Loving restaurants and new people.
• Celebrating first thanksgiving!
• Celebrating grammy's birthday.
• (Knock on wood) you are finally an amazing sleeper.
• On the downside: first ear infection and cough.

She's pretty much the best, but I think everyone already knows that. We love love love you little bear.

xoxo,
Mama

Uh Oh...

 

Now you're all in big BIG trouble.

(name that movie)

Random Ramblings of Sunday

I love that our family all lives within 1.5 hours of us.

It means Sunday brunch with my brother, sister in law, and baby Stella.

Sienna wanted to eat all of Stella's snacks.

Typical.

Sienna also stole a sweet potato fry off my plate.

Havre de Grace on a 65 degree day = great for an afternoon walk.

And of course some instagram pics.

 

 

In other baby news, S stood up in her crib today.

Time to lower the mattress.

I pumped on the way to lunch.

Because my child is too distracted to nurse lately.

I almost spilled milk in the car.

I felt like this.

 

 

House wise, we've been neglectful lately.

Time to get back to business.

I started painting the kitchen this weekend.

I was supposed to paint it circa last January.

Oops.

The greyish blue is a big win over the green.

The photo below is way darker than what it looks like.

Goal is to finish coat #1 by end of tonight.

 

 

 

 

Sigh, don't you just love weekends?

 

 

Saturday Morning.

 

Fav foods. Fav drinks. Fav baby. Yes, yes, yes.

New fav recipes.

Lately we've had some downtime in our house, mostly due to Hurricane Sandy. Combine that with a few other life events that have had us more grounded than usual, and it leaves me with a few extra cooking and baking adventures. I've gotten back to using pinterest lately and trying to actually do or use the things I pin. These two recipes are tweaked from things I found there.

Number One: Stuffing Bread Peach French Toast Casserole
*The real recipe used texas toast but when I saw a bag of "stuffing bread" in the grocery store for $1, I figured it was the perfect thing to use. Especially since I planned on freezing this.

Ingredients

Bread (any kind really as long as it's slightly stale)

6 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

butter for bread

Peach or Apricot Marmalade (I used peach butter from our natural food store)

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 1/2 cups milk  (I used soy)

 

 

1. Butter bottom of casserole dish

2. Layer of bread (buttered on one side)

3. Layer of peach/apricot marmalade

4. Lay of buttered bread

5. Whisk milk, nutmeg, eggs in a bowl.

6. Pour mixture over bread

7. Fridge for 8-24 hours, then remove

8. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar

9. Bake for 40-50 mins at 375 degrees

 

PS I always let S help me bake. I give her spoons, measuring cups, bowls, and stick her in her high chair right next to the counter. I sometimes let her measure (aka play with) some flour or something that won't harm her if she gets a bit in her mouth. She LOVES this and watches intently when I turn on the mixer and push buttons on the oven. Great baby activity.

Prepared at night; Baked in the morning.

Mmm delicious! This was so much food. We ate about 1/4 of it. Froze the rest. Saving for a rainy morning! So so good.

 

Number Two: Salmon with home made teriyaki and sriracha sauce stuffed with cream cheese

[topped with green onions]

 

Ingredients:
Teriyaki Sauce:

1/4 cup corn starch

1/4 cup cold water

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 cup cold water

2 tablespoons honey

5 tablespoons brown sugar

1 teaspoon ground ginger

sprinkle of garlic powder

 

Salmon:
Salmon filets

cream cheese (to your liking)

Sesame Seeds

Green onion

 

Sriracha Spicy Dressing:

1/4 cup Sriracha sauce

3/4 cup mayo

3 tablespoons condensed sweetened milk

 

To make teriyaki sauce:

mix corn starch + water in bowl, set aside

mix rest of ingredients into sauce pan, simmer (make sure brown sugar is melted)

add in corn starch mixture and mix until thickens (about 1 minute)

 

Salmon Filet Prep:

Prepare salmon by slicing knife in lengthwise to create pocket 

Place salmon filets in dish

Cover with teriyaki mixture

Refridgerate 30 mins-8 hours

 

Remove salmon from fridge

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Stuff cream cheese in pockets

Sprinkle sesame seeds

Place in baking dish that is lined with tin foil, cover with foil

Bake at 400 for 20-25 mins

Uncover, bake 5 mins (you can broil if you want crispy)

 

While baking, mix Sriracha sauce ingredients

Cut green onions.

Top once Salmon is finished.

 

The hubby went back for seconds. So good, so Easy!

 

Happy Eating!

 

 

 

men who respect women. more specifically, moms.

Have you guys ever read howtobeadad.com? It's hilarious. But the premise is that the hilarity is wrapped in the fact that these dudes praise and respect their wives for being moms- and their kids for being kids. I was browsing the past postings and camem across a post about the whole breastfeeding debate. And at the end, it had this quote:

You are mom enough.

Because there's a little person in this world who calls you mom.

-Andy


Well said.

Read the full article here.

PS- Speaking of a little person calling you mom... S is now looking at me in the eye and saying "mom!" or "ma ma ma ma" while crawling to me. Call me crazy, but I think my girl knows who I am. Success.